1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for analyzing, ex post facto, historical travel data representing travel attitude angles and velocities of a vehicle changing in time sequence, particularly, historical travel data around (before and after) an occurrence of an accident such as a collision or a crash, so as to achieve scientific elucidation of a cause of the accident.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, many vehicles have been equipped with safety devices which are automatically operated so as to avoid danger upon detection of abnormality during traveling. However, to whatever extent the safety of the vehicle may be mechanically improved, driver's awareness or appreciation about the safety is essential for reducing the accidents on a substantial basis. For example, the driver runs the vehicle relying on his or her own sensibility or judgment, which, however, changes depending on an environmental situation. As appreciated, even while running the vehicle at the same speed, for example, at 100 km/h, the driver senses it differently depending on whether traveling on an express highway or a general road. Thus, for ensuring the driving safety, it is necessary for the driver to recognize such ambiguousness of his or her own sensibility.
On the other hand, the recent development of the vehicular safety devices tends to make it difficult to fully catch an actual state of the accident only from ex-post conditions upon inspection, thus leading to difficulty in achieving an objective judgment or elucidation of a cause of the accident. As a result, it is possible that an unfounded and unreasonable result of the inspection is given to a victim or an assaulter of the accident. Further, there has been available no way of scientific analysis for providing an effective accident preventive measure.